**How to thicken a dish** There are several methods you can use to thicken your dish. Cornflour: Mix 2 tablespoons of cornflour with a 2 tablespoons of cool tap water. Mix until you have combined the two well so that it is a liquid without lumps. Pour this mix straight into your slow cooker dish approx 20-30mins before serving. Stir it briefly into the dish as much as you are able to around whatever is in the pot. Then leave the dish to continue cooking, preferably on high but low if you need to. This added cornflour will thicken the liquids in the recipe. This step can be repeated if you need to but beware not to add too much flour to your recipe! Once or twice is usually all thats needed. Some people like to ladle the liquid out of the slow cooker and add the cornflour to it over a stove while cooking. Totally up to you. Grated potato: Grate 1-2 raw potatoes. Approximately 30-45minutes prior to serving add the grated raw potato to your slow cooker dish. Stir as much as you are able to. This will very quickly thicken the dish and the remaining cooking time will allow the potato to cook through. *note* This will only suit some recipes eg those with vegetable or potato already in them or that which would be complimented by the addition of potato. You can also substitute grated raw potato for instant potato flakes. Others like to use gravy granules also, again depending on the recipe. Lift the lid: Another option is to remove the lid of the slow cooker or at least place it ajar for the last half hour of cooking to enable the sauce to thicken. This is not ideal as the very nature of the slow cooker is to have the sealed environment for the cooking temperatures to be maintained but it is an option. Use less liquid to begin with: Slow cookers by nature drip condensation from the lid down into the meal during cooking. Despite people thinking meat has to be covered in liquid to slow cook it does in fact need very little liquid. If you find a dish is regularly ending up with far too much liquid reduce the liquid in the initial recipe next time you cook it. The teatowel trick: You will often see in recipes that people will state to lay a teatowel between the slow cooker bowl and the lid of the slow cooker. This is to absorb condensation and stop it from dripping down into the dish inside. Its often used in cakes and breads etc that you dont want to end up soggy. People do have concerns about fire hazards with this but from what I have been able to learn, cotton has an Autoignition temperature of 407 °C (765 °F). Your slow cooker will come no where near these temperatures.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 02:31:00 +0000
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